I’m fine - I used to tell myself and others when asked even when I was going through periods of heightened stress that caused obsessive and negative thinking.
By telling myself this and denying myself the opportunity to “get it off my chest” through expression and confiding in others I ended up internalising my negative state.
Our society has normalised stress and over the decades demonised any fluctuation away from being on ‘top form’. We’re starting to notice a shift here but within men's well-being the conditioning runs very deep, you only need to look at the statistics for chronic disease mental health and male suicide rates to notice that this is a collective issue.
When we normalise our difficulties we deny ourselves the opportunity to break away from them and thus further solidify dis-ease as our default state.
When this happens we cut ourselves off from the possibility of calling in more joy, creativity, inner peace and love for ourselves and those closest to us.
At one end of the scale, this can mean life or death and at the other end, this can result in becoming stuck in our own created limitations.
When we get honest about our difficulties, accept ourselves for who we are and seek to make any necessary changes through vulnerable conversation and other healing modalities, the possibility of liberating ourselves becomes real and we open the door to increased happiness and a sense of ease.
Knowing this and practising this not only has the potential to heal your pains but has the potential to inspire other men to do the same that over time will start to shift how men collectively show up in the world.
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